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If there’s one thing I’m happy about
I’m happy I’m a girl or… a woman
I love to dress up, heels and all
I love to make up, mascara and all
Matching shoes and bag is my thing
I love fashion and I like looking trendy
I love pink, purple, blue, green and red
I love to nurture, to care, to love
I love roses, cards and chocolates
I may not like period pains
I may cry over labour pains
I may have crushes and heartbreaks
I may not have a pointed nose,
A curvy shape or blue eyes
But I’m a girl, I’m a woman
I’m a sister, I’m a daughter,
I’m a mother, I’m a wife…
I know who I am
That’s who God made me
That’s who I am,
And I’m proud it is so

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The tides are turning
The horsemen are coming,
That which was once afar
That has caught up at last,
Folded tools to digging holes
Folded shirts to sweaty hands,
Hardy Horsemen!
Emissaries of Strength!
Bearing hope to feeble strides!
Bearing faith to doubtful hearts!
We waited, we prayed
We believed, we planned,
Time and his horsemen are coming
Harbingers of dreams come true;

We dared to believe in God
We dared to stand and fight
We shall do our part
When Time comes
Will surely do His part, Our God

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To keep fighting
And keep trying
Fate favours not
The indolent;
One life
One opportunity
My chance
To make it count;
The journey is on
Purpose- my Driver;
I may be walking like a snail
But, I’m moving;
Afar off, others ahead
They ran too fast
And burned out;
Rather to keep moving
Like the tortoise,
Than to run faster than a hare
And burn out
My limited resources;The finish line is always
For those that never stopped moving.

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Dare to dream, dare to let your thoughts run wild.
Dare to go on an adventure of the mind and let your fantasies carry you into the bubbles of creativity and a million possibilities. Don’t hold back, dream!
Create a new world in your mind, where everything is just as it should be; escape the stresses, worries and imperfections of this world and enter into the realms of your dreams where everything is serene, orderly, and perfect.

There you are free to sing, dance, laugh, jump and to fly away to your heart’s content. There you are free to realize that you are important, that without you, your dreams will remain only… dreams. For when you stop dreaming, when you stop believing, you stop living.
Dare to close your eyes, and Dream…

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You. You are an important factor in this project. It’s all about you. It’s what you want, it will make you happy and fulfilled. It brings joy to your heart, it’s the air you breath and it’s sweeter than your favourite delicacy. It all revolves around you.
You can start it, you can continue it, modify it, or quit on it.

No matter how everyone wants you to do it, if you don’t do it, it’s not done. And, no matter how people criticise and discourage you from it, if your heart is set on it, you will achieve it. Don’t underestimate the power of you.

Your uniqueness. There’s something original and different about you, about the way you write, talk, think, etc. bring that into your project and own it. I call it “your zing”. Each of us think and process information differently, we have our specific unique zings. Find yours, inject it into your project, and own it. There are many copycats these days, try not to be one. Get ideas from people but add your uniqueness, your own originality to it and that’s what will make you stand out.
You are important. You are unique. You have a zing. Find it. Use it. Stand out from the crowd.

“Always be yourself and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and try to duplicate it.” –Bruce Lee

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Always put your motives under the X-ray of objectivity. Why are you doing it? Why do you want you do it? What’s the driving force?Your motivation factor is key.
Your motivation is your strength.
Your motive is your fuel.
Your motivation is your saviour.

In many days to come when you don’t just feel like it, when setbacks has hassled every plan you have or when everyone criticises you and writes you off; in such times you will feel a lot of negative energy-draining emotions. You may face physical, personal and emotional pressure. What will keep you from giving up and from quitting is your motives. Take marriage for instance, despite the arguments, struggles and differences of opinions we face as couples, many of us have realised that we love our spouses. Our love for our husbands or wives drives us to find ways to help the relationship. When that love is weakened, to stay committed, to fight, to endure becomes a struggle. When the tensions and the heat is down, we realise that we are still madly in love hence, walking away is never an option. In every facet of life, motive is an important key to progress, growth and expansion.

So what’s the motivation? To please people? To prove a point? To compete out of jealousy? To be a celebrity? To make money? To inspire the younger generation? To heal the world? To be a better person? For a better future? To leave a legacy?
What’s your motivation? What’s your motive? So many bloggers we began with have faded away. They are not writing anymore and their blogs have become abandoned projects. I don’t know why but I know that partly the reason is that they couldn’t cope with the pressure, and probably their motive was not strong enough. Hence, they caved in to procrastination and eventual abandonment of their blog sites.

Do you have a dream, a desire to do something? To achieve a goal or an objective? What’s the motive behind it? X-ray your motives and do an objective inward search to find out. When you do, nurse it, guard it and preserve it. Make sure not to lose it. Your motive is your saviour.

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Write down your motto, mantra, slogan or declaration. It could be a board of motivational quotes and clips, book of motivational stories and words/verses of faith that help you believe. It could be a faith corner. Words, audiovisuals, picture collage of words, etc. It’s got to be something written down that you can read everyday to yourself. There is power in spoken words, but you’ve got to have the right words to speak. You may say, I will remember. I guarantee that you will not. The pen is mightier than the sword.

Let your mantra be the daily milk you drink every day, the constant fuel that ignites your fire and passion. Write it down, say it daily. Keep it handy or clip it by your mirror. You will discover how positive you will be. Writing it down always helps you articulate your thoughts to what’s really important. Check every successful company you know, you will find their motto. For countries you will find an anthem, for faith/religion you will find a creed. Don’t underestimate the power of repetition. What you say everyday will gradually become what you believe. What you do everyday will eventually become who you are.

I’ve discovered by experience that there’s something about spoken words of declaration. I have several of them written in a book and I cannot explain the energy, the positivity and the can-do spirit that fills my heart each day since I started it. It’s so refreshing and invigorating.

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Visualise your dream. You have to see or have an idea what the end product would look like. It may not be the full details, it could just be just a sketch of the real picture. So when you look at your plans, your mapped out projections, what does you see? Do each part correlate in your mind to form a whole picture? What do you see? Do you see a wholesome big picture?

Next is to visit physical sites/places in relation to what you are planning to help you visualise your dreams. It’s not enough to search online. If there are physical places around you in connection to your dream, book an appointment if required, then go there and have a feel of the atmosphere. This point is not a blanket rule for every and any project. Nevertheless, it can be applied to an extent to every dream we desire to achieve.
If you want to open a Garden/Flower Center or shop, take a trip to an existing one, if you want to open a nursery or be caterer, take a trip to any around you. If politics is your desire, visit your local councillor’s surgery. Find out from those who are already in the project what you are required to do. Ask critical questions and look around for yourself.

Visiting a physical site will help you to visualise your dreams and see first hand what’s obtainable. Sometimes we may believe, we may make plans and have the best intentions but, without visiting an existing site to help our visualisation, we may end up making expensive mistakes which might discourage us from venturing further.

If you have the time and if such services are available, take it a notch up and offer yourself as a volunteer. Getting involved will definitely give you great insight to the nitty gritty of the work. Hence, with such close ranged commitment, it’s a perfect place and time to evaluate again your strengths and capabilities based on what you are actually witnessing.

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“I guess it’s believe that I can achieve such heights… I believed that I could maybe come back. If you believe, you can go really far in life. I think I did that and I’m happy. I kept on believing and dreaming and here I am today…” said the 8th time Wimbledon winner.

If you believe it, it’s possible, it can’t be done and it can be achieved. You just have to work hard and keep dreaming, keep believing.

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Journey with joy. Remember it’s a journey, so one step at a time. Like every other journey, it may lead to more journeys or it may end at the culmination of the achievement of your goal. So relax, enjoy each process, each stage and get the best out of them. Lap up every step of your journey because you may not have any moments like that again.

Don’t postpone your joy and happiness to when you are one big celebrity with 3 million followers and lots of money. Whether 2 or 20 followers on paper or online, whether low profits margin or little funds raised; or whatever level you achieved in what you’re pursuing, celebrate it with joy, gratitude, bottles of wine and pat on your back. That achievement was deserved, and it’s truly a level accomplished.

It’s a journey, so give it time but don’t be idle; don’t be in a hurry and avoid hasty decisions. Every completed project that lasts a lifetime takes time. Neither the city of Rome nor the Eiffel Tower were built in a day. They took time and so does your dreams. Give it time, and keep doing something daily (See my notes on D- Draw and Do), in a few years, you would have achieved a lot. And you would certainly be glad you didn’t rush things.

“In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” –Max De Pree

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Listen to your heart, your instincts and intuition. Don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions and make impulsive decisions. To get the best out of your limited resources, you must have a time to pause and listen to your heart amidst the excitement and adrenaline.

Listen to heart, what can you hear? Sometimes you may feel that you are ready for the next step, but if you listen you may hear your instincts/intuition telling you to wait for so and so. Other times, you may be lolly lagging and dilly dallying, but if you listen you will hear your heart nudging you to go for it.

And a note to believers, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Take a pause through those barrage of ideas, thoughts and decisions needing attention, to listen to your heart, what is God telling you to do?

Most of the times, if we tell ourselves the truth, our intuitions are always correct. So let’s not make avoidable mistakes by ignoring the small tugs we feel in our hearts even when it means going against logic or the crowd.